Brooklyn Atlantic Yards/Nets Barclay's Arena
Forest City Ratner's plan to bring the New Jersey Nets basketball team to a new stadium in Brooklyn has been hotly contested since its announcement in 2004. The multi-billion project, when first envisioned, included a basketball arena for the New York Nets and several high-rise buildings for residential and commercial use. To win support from some groups, the developer promised a significant number of affordable housing units and local consrtuction jobs. But those promises did little to calm residents angered by New York State's use of eminent domain and the massive scale of the project on the surrounding Prospect Heights neighborhood. In response, two groups formed to create a broader vision for the development of the site and filed suits against the Empire State Development Corporation: Brooklyn Speaks and Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. For a concise history and regular updates of the policy and politics of the project visit Atlantic Yards Report.
Summer 2012 update - New York City Housing and Development Corporation hearing on $92 million bond offering for housing at Brooklyn Atlantic Yards
July 18, 2012: New York City Housing Development Corporation public hearing on the proposed $92 million bond offering to finance residentail apartment units at the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards development project. Despite inadequate notice of the hearing to the public, it was attended by a handful of advocates and residents. GJNY provided testimony at the hearing, criticizing the HDC for providing bare minimum notice to the public (only a notice in the New York Post) and insufficient project materials for the public to weigh in on the proposal.
September 2012: As a result of testimony provided by GJNY and others at the July public hearing, the Housing Development Corporation updated its website with a new 'public meetings' page, that includes hearing notices, as well as archived agendas and meeting materials. GJNY's testimony as well as HDC project materials and links to more information on development at the Atlantic Yards can be found below.
Related documents
HDC's Fact Sheet on the residential development
Testiomony of Michael D.D. White of Noticing New York.
For more details of this hearing and the proposed bonds visit: Atlantic Yards Report.
2009
Independent Budget Office report: The Proposed Arena at Atlantic Yards: An Analysis of City Fiscal Gains and Losses [pdf]
2005
June 2005 - Forest City Ratner Corporation and several community groups released a Community Benefits Agreement on the proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project
May 2005, New York City Council holds a hearing on the proposed project read our testimony
In March 2005, the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development issued a report with contributions from Good Jobs New York and the Fiscal Policy Institute: Slam Dunk or Airball? A Preliminary Planning Analysis of the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Project
Independent Budget Office report: Atlantic Yards: A Net Fiscal Benefit for the City? [pdf]
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